Traffic reporting is the study of movement of vehicles on the roads. Analytical techniques may manage and track traffic information in order to derive travel times, guide driving behavior and optimize road infrastructure for cities. Traffic Message Channel (TMC) and other traffic services deliver traffic information to customers. Traffic incidents and traffic flow are reported through broadcasts. Traffic delays may be caused by one or more of congestion, construction, accidents, special events (e.g., concerts, sporting events, festivals), weather conditions (e.g., rain, snow, tornado), and so on.
The traffic data may be collected from probes from individual drivers. The individual drivers may travel with tracking devices (e.g., navigation devices or mobile device). However, the saturation rate of road segments having a tracking device at any given point in time may be quite low. In addition, a penetration rate describing the percentage of vehicles acting as a probe may also be quite low. Thus, the available traffic data may be insufficient to represent a complete traffic map.